Mexican Pizza: A Healthy and Gluten-Free, 21-Day Fix Recipe

My Inspiration

This is a Mexican pizza from Taco Bell. | Source

Improving on an Old Favorite

Ever since I was young, I've loved all things Mexican. The combination of flavors in this type of food is especially appealing to me. I was introduced to Mexican pizza from Taco Bell as a kid and often craved this. I know Taco Bell isn't even close to real Mexican food, but hey, it's convenient late on a Saturday night after drinks with friends. However, there were a few things stopping me from indulging more often.

Taco Bell isn't usually thought of as a healthy meal option, especially not this item.

It isn't kosher, due to the mixing of meat and cheese.

The Taco Bell website lists this as having 540 calories and a whopping 30 grams of fat (OMG!).

Eating a healthier diet means that Mexican pizza is out of the question. Until today ...

The Original Plan

I was originally planning to make cauliflower based tamales, but once it came out of the oven and I had my first bite, I knew it wasn't even close to a tamale. While cauliflower is certainly versatile, there's some things that just can't be made with cauliflower. Tamales is one of those. When this was finished, it looked good, but as soon as it hit my tastebuds, I realized it tasted as close to a Mexican pizza as I could get.

The best part? It's got a bunch of veggies that I snuck in. You can't even taste them! Don't get weirded out, guys, but I managed to get an entire bag of baby spinach in the enchilada sauce, along with a huge can of tomatoes, a jalapeño pepper (it's not that spicy in this), and 3 bags of cauliflower rice. I'm all about the quick and easy meals, so I took the liberty of using frozen cauliflower rice.

Since we keep a kosher kitchen, I can't mix meat and dairy. What's a kosher girl to do? Use a clean plant based beef substitute. It allows vegetarians to enjoy this meal as well (unless you don't eat eggs). If you don't keep kosher and prefer meat, feel free to substitute ground chicken, turkey, or beef. But beware, it'll add onto the cooking time.

My Finished Product

The finished product ready to eat.

What Do You Think?

Rate Me!

5 stars from 1 rating of Mexican Pizza - Healthy and Gluten-Free

Cook Time

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 35 min

Ready in: 50 min

Yields: 9 servings (1/3 of standard pie tin=1 serving)

Ingredients

Enchilada Sauce :

1 bag (5 oz) baby spinach

1 cup water

1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained

2 tablespoons chili powder

3 tablespoons adobo

1 tablespoon garlic, minced or crushed

1 jalapeño

For the pizza :

3 bags (10-12 oz) riced cauliflower

3 cups shredded Mexican or cheddar jack cheese, divided

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon oregano, dried

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, adjust to taste

1/4 teaspoon black pepper, adjust to taste

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, for pan

1 tablespoon garlic, minced or crushed

2 bags Gardein beefless ground

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 can (14 oz) pinto or black beans, drained

1 can corn, drained (optional ingredient)

Optional toppings :

3 green onions, chopped

Sour cream to taste

A few shakes hot sauce

3-4 tomatoes, diced

Toppings

I topped my pizza with fresh diced tomatoes. If you like scallions, feel free to add those on for a little pop of color and flavor. If you aren't counting containers (21 day fix), you could even throw some sliced black olives on top. Or sour cream (greek yogurt for 21 day fix peeps). The possibilities are endless!

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease 3 pie tins with cooking spray.

Heat the cauliflower rice in the microwave as per instructions on the bag. I did this one at a time, and it took about 5 minutes each. Set aside the bags to cool while preparing the enchilada sauce.

Place water and spinach in the blender. Blend until it is all frothy liquid.
Cut the jalapeño pepper into small pieces, making sure you remove the ribs and all of the seeds.
Then add the rest of the enchilada ingredients and blend until fully mixed and smooth.

Put the cauliflower rice into a big mixing bowl and add the egg, oregano, and 1.5 cups of cheese. Add salt and pepper, then mix until everything is combined. Press this mixture into the pie tins and bake on the top rack of the oven for 20 minutes, until the crusts are golden brown.

While the crust is baking, put the olive oil into a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and the Gardein beefless ground. Cook until the meat is warm, stirring frequently (about 5 minutes).

Add chili powder, cumin, enchilada sauce, and beans (corn too if you want) to the skillet, and mix until it is heated through (about 5 more minutes).

Take the cauliflower crusts out of the oven and divide the filling evenly onto the cauliflower crusts. Top with the remaining cheese. Bake another 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

Making Enchilada Sauce

Start of the enchilada sauce.

Enchilada Sauce?

I wanted to sneak some extra nutrition into this meal. Baby spinach is a great way to add extra vegetables without that overly "green" flavor. I've used it in smoothies, and the secret to getting a smooth base is to put the spinach into the blender with your liquid ingredients, and blend until there's no chunks or visible pieces. If it looks like the picture above (all liquid with a little bit of froth), you're ready to add the rest of the enchilada sauce ingredients.

I've never seen a green enchilada sauce, but maybe it does exist. I'm a New Yorker that's never been to Mexico. I have seen green salsa, and while the finished sauce clearly has a green hue, you absolutely can't even tell there's a whole bag of spinach in it. Feel free to adjust the seasonings to suit your palate. I was nervous about making a dish that was too spicy, so I used only one jalapeño. It gave it a nice flavor without that feeling that my tastebuds are slowly dying. I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to spicy.

This made a lot of sauce. I put whatever wasn't used into the freezer, so we could use it over an omelet or veggies in the future.

Cauliflower Base

Cauliflower with cheese, seasoning, and an egg to form the base of the pizza.

Cauliflower Crust Base

This is the base of the Mexican pizza, ready to be baked.

Preparing the Crust

I tried gently pressing the cauliflower mixture into pie tins with a fork, but that took wayyyyyy too much time and effort. So I put on some rubber gloves and pressed it down with my hands. Much easier and super quick. If you look close enough, you can see the imprints of my fingers. Shhhhh, don't tell. No one noticed, since it was covered with the rest of the ingredients after the crust baked. I usually like to get the water out of the cauliflower rice by using a dry pan to sauté, but I was in kind of a rush. And it worked out just fine. Once it was all mixed and pressed into the pan, I baked it until it was dry and golden brown.

The Cooked Base

Cauliflower crust after baking.

Topping for the Pizza

This is the "meat," mixed with beans, enchilada sauce, and seasoning.

That Looks a Lot Like Meat

If that is what you're thinking, you're 100% correct. It DOES look a lot like ground beef. But it isn't. When I'm planning a recipe that pairs meat and dairy, Gardein Beefless Ground is my go to item. It's a clean protein substitute that is vegetarian and gluten-free. It's got the beef flavor, but a little bit of a chewier texture. When it's sautéed, it tends to get a little dry. So I doused it in my green enchilada sauce. It came out perfect.

Fresh Out of the Oven

After baking it all together.

21-Day Fix Container Counts

Container counts for 21 day fix are as follows:

Green - 1 and 1/3

Blue - 1

Red - 1/2

Yellow - 1/2

Teaspoons - negligible

Don’t forget to count any toppings!

Questions & Answers

Questions must be on-topic, written with proper grammar usage, and understandable to a wide audience.

Connect with us

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, delishably.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)